What even is the Champion?

[Mulqueeny]

It looks like someone salvaged a VTOL and Stuck some mech legs on it.

An Absolute Frankenmech.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Originally posted by Clever Name:

Meh. Dervish-6M can do whatever the Shadow Hawk can do in terms of SRM boating.

My response

[AnimeHero]

Excuse me, but El Champo is one of my all time favorite designs. Don't you slander my boi.

[Clever Name]

Originally posted by AnimeHero:

Excuse me, but El Champo is one of my all time favorite designs. Don't you slander my boi.

I honestly can't find any variants beyond the crappiest -2Ns, which is one of the reasons I've never used Champs. I might give it a shot if I could find anything else.

[Bovril Brigadier]

In MW5 Champion is actually a really good early game Mech for performing Destruction or Raid Mission. 4x Medium Lasers plus an AC/5 or LBX-10 allows you to really go to town and make them a cakewalk.

[Shrinkshooter]

Originally posted by Clever Name:

I'm actually very much a fan of the design concept where arms are left empty.

When I first looked at the Champ in MW5 and realized as I stared at the model, then double checked the stats to make sure, that there was literally nothing in the arms, I thought it was pretty stupid.

But then I thought actually, that's not a bad idea. From an in-universe "realism" perspective, those huge "pontoon things" as someone called it make for unavoidable targets from the side profile; you're only going to hit those or the legs, which are already sticks in motion. Both the arms are shields, and both side torsos are set back, making them difficult to hit even from a full-on straight forward attack angle. The CT sticks out a bit but also has the most armor.

The main drawback I see in having an "empty arms" design is they lack accuracy and / or getting sights on target quickly, since your weapons are effectively all locked to the torso and don't have the flexible aiming of gyroscoping arms.

[Clever Name]

Originally posted by Shrinkshooter:

The main drawback I see in having an "empty arms" design is they lack accuracy and / or getting sights on target quickly, since your weapons are effectively all locked to the torso and don't have the flexible aiming of gyroscoping arms.

My preferences change depending on the game type.

In tabletop rules, you actually want weapons in the arms. Only torso locations can be critted through armor, so arms are effectively immune from crits until their armor is totally depleted. Arms also increase firing angles beyond the range of torso twisting.

In MW5, however, the crit thing is non-applicable, and the increased attack angles are useful but not strictly necessary very often.

In MW5, I either want zero weapons in arms, or disposable medium lasers.